After nearly getting ulcers worrying about being stranded overnight at Newark (and yes, my carry-on consisted only of my laptop and a big blanket!) the travel Gods smiled down upon us and Beck and I were re-routed to LAX via Cleveland. Thank GAWD! I was doubly blessed by the fact that this flight also got us to Los Angeles 2 hours earlier! Yay!
Beck is a great travel companion. Save for the incident when he spilled his cup of apple juice in my lap only 1 hour into our first flight, he's a superb little traveller. Not an ounce of trouble. For him, being on the plane is just too much fun. We checked into the Westin, ordered room serve (oh man, that's the life! Did I mention the bazillion thread count linens....) we went to sleep.
The next morning we drove to San Diego. Beck slept most of the way thanks to a visit from a special friend who allowed Beck to use him as a human jungle gym and tired him right out! (thank you, thank you). Once at the big Kyrgyz shindig we were immediately greeted by our KG coordinator and the orphanage director. Beck was all smiles as he hugged both of them. They both began to talk to him in Russian and he smiled politely at them then looked at me and asked "Mommy, go play on slide?". I think they were caught off guard by his lack of comprehension who what they were saying to him in Russian, and the ease in which he spoke to me in English. One thing was clear, he was more interested in playing on the playground then catching up on old times.
I got to finally meet in person Tina and her 2 beauties, Jackie (our dossiers once lived together on a desk in KG). It was great to see her little Nola again, she has grown leaps and bounds since her days in Tokmok! We also met Margaret (who met Beck back in Tokmok when she adopted her son and daughter), Jen (where's your blog?) and her baby, and many, many other KG parents and their beautiful kids. I know I'm missing a bunch of people, my apologies. And of course we got to hang out with Hilary, Tim and Anara (who didn't humor me with her 'happy baby' dance... oh my sweet little dumpling, you know I'm gonna request 'happy baby' every single time I see you!).
It was great to see everyone.... well, except for maybe he-who-tried-to-leave-us-in-Kazakhstan. But Beck handled that little situation for me. Atta boy!
Beck with our KG coordinator Lyudmilla 
Lyudmilla, Beck and Tatiana (Tokmok Orphanage Director) 
Friends Forever! Beck and Anara 
Anara, Beck, Tina and Izzy 
Old Tokmok pals Max, Beck and Katie 
Beck and Tokmok friend Raymond 
Fun at Sea World!
4 comments:
HAHAHAHA--I wish I had been there to see Beck handle that little issue!
We need to get a picture of him with boxing gloves on! Don't mess with Beck or his Mama! He's smart, he had that look of "he made my mom cry" about him :) Hope to see you later in the summer/fall...keep your fingers crossed!
It was so GREAT to finally meet you, Mala, and your little man!! It was great to hang out...next time I hope we have more time ;)
It was so wonderful finally meeting you Mala! I feel so lucky that you could come and that we could see Beck once again. I only wishwe'd had a week! Also, I saw how polite you were to the Mr. whose name will not be mentioned. I was very impressed. How surprising that he was there in the first place....oh well.
Anyway, my pictures are coming soon on my blog.
Tina
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